SECOND TIME’S A CHARM
GAVIN BERRY
AS Motherwell club captain and 12 years his senior, Peter Hartley offered David Turnbull some sage advice after the heartbreaking collapse of his dream Celtic move last summer.
“I just said to him, ‘Listen Davie, there’s plenty of years ahead of you. Get your head down, work hard and get fit. Control the controllables and everything else will open up for you.”
And just 14 months on, after watching the Steelmen starlet’s gruelling rehabilitation at close quarters, former Fir Park skipper Hartley is delighted to see that hard work is about to pay off with Turnbull on the brink of a Parkhead switch.
Hartley wasn’t surprised to see the Hoops express their interest along with Norwich a year ago – the only surprise was that others didn’t join them to form a queue of suitors.
Celtic won the race as a £3.25million deal was agreed only for the move to fall through when a scan discovered a slight tear in the knee area that could have gone unnoticed throughout Turnbull’s career, or could have developed into a far more serious problem.
He underwent preventative surgery to fix the issue which kept him out before returning to the top team just before Covid-19 halted the season.
But Turnbull has returned this term looking fitter and better than ever despite Motherwell’s poor start to the season, prompting Celtic to revive their interest.
Hartley is delighted for the sport@dailyrecord.co.uk midfielder he believes is destined to play in the English Premier League one day. He said: “When his move fell through I had a couple of talks with him but I didn’t want to dig too deep because I didn’t know what was happening.
“I told him he couldn’t affect what had happened but he could get fit and back to the level he was playing at. And he worked hard every single day.
“The gym is connected to the physio room at Fir Park and he was in there doing lots of work with Davie Henderson, a top physio who spent countless hours working with him.
“Boys would be finishing and Davie was still doing single leg squats, strengthening his knee.
“He’d be in early in the morning and dedicated himself to get back playing.
“David kept his head down and his mouth shut and didn’t say anything to the boys really.
“He was in and about the lads but you could just see he was focused and driven on one goal and that was getting back fit.
“So if he moves to Celtic then, without a shadow of a doubt, he’ll have earned it. I’ll be disappointed for Motherwell losing a player like that but pleased for Davie.
“And for him it’s a step in the right direction of moving on again. He’s climbing the ladder and I believe he’ll play in the Premier League one day – he’s that good.
“Having worked with him every single day, I was surprised more Premier League clubs didn’t come in for him last year and it was only Norwich and Celtic.
“There might have been more but when I read those two I was amazed there wasn’t a queue of clubs outside Fir Park to sign him because he’s that good.
“People only watched him for 90 minutes on a Saturday but I had the opportunity to see him train every day and he could have been in the first team two years earlier.
“Stephen Robinson was very good because he might not have been ready physically and the gaffer made a great decision in holding him back. And when he was ready, he put him in.”
Hartley witnessed Turnbull’s mental strength in his desire to get back, having already been left in no doubt about his top talent after hitting 15 league goals in his breakthrough season.
Turnbull picked up the SFWA Young Player of the Year award that term and Hartley says the dedicated dressing-room quiet man lives for his football.
The 32-year-old Englishman, in talks over a move to Indian Super League side Jamshedpur, said: “Davie keeps himself to himself, he’s really quiet.
“You have different characters in a squad. You’d meet at 1.30pm in the dressing room for a 3pm kick off and he’d be sitting in the corner reading the programme with his legs crossed.
“He doesn’t say boo to a goose and then all of a sudden you get him on the pitch and he just comes alive – he’s a different animal.
“The picture he has in his head before he receives the ball shows how technically gifted he is. He knows when to take one touch or two touches, when to pass and when to hold on to the ball.
“I remember when he made his debut I thought he must be nervous but it was like he was playing down the park with his pals.
“I was quite old so I didn’t see him outside of the club but seeing his personality in and around that football environment you could tell he just loves the game.”